STFU! wHAT A USELESS REVIEW AS ALWAYS!

I never liked this venue very much. Saw CSN here in the fall of 1982 too. One recollection of note was that you could hear the lions roar from the adjacent Lion Country Safari. If I remember correctly, the Who played the coliseum the night after this show making for an interesting three nights.

First and ever show with the Grateful Dead, all the way from Denmark :-) with big help from... good guy from gas-station... and with his Lada drow my from ? (the gas-station) to warmup-party at the college, and there after to the concert at Irivne Meadows... and back to the gas-station!!!
Thanks. I'm dreaming back :-) Let the music live - and all evil die!!
All the best, Lars Myrthu-Nielsen

I went to this show but since I had just graduated from U.C.S.B. in Biochemistry I dropped to much L.S.D. so I had to let other drive us there; we barely got ther in time for Shakedown Street, since this ws the first time they ever played at Irvine Meadows all my college friends seemed to think it was at U.C. Irvine, well high or not I could at least knew better than that!
Yet it probably was the weakest Irvine show ever not as good as Tempe or even the Aladdin Th. in Las Vegas (which torn down eventually and it's first show in '81 was the best), which both preceeded this.
Much less, compared to the next year here in which was brilliant and probably the best Irvine show ever! Although '85 & '86 weren't bad either, and after that it sort of deteriorated or so I got the impression since I didn't bother going!
However, at least there is one tape here so you can see what I mean, rather some of these other nitwits, who review show that they didn't even go to. I only review those I was actually in attendance and no I didn't dose at every show; not ever close more like about ~15% of them out of ~211 from 1976-10-10 Oakland Stadium opening for The Who to 1994-12-16 or was it 18(?) L.A. Sports Arena w/ Branford Marsalis!

Augy
San Diego

Bit the Dead brightened it this day. I was at this show and the ones in '85 and had a great time at all 3 shows. This was just such a phenomenal era of the Dead, the band was so good and the scene was great. Everything got [permanenettly screwed in '86 when they did the forst Dylan tour and played stadiums then when In The Dark hit in '87 the Dead were about done. They had a couple blips of good playing in the late '80's but they had a very tame sound overall and they shows were way too short and hardly did any meaningful improve at all, so this period has become a very special one for us who were on the road. Good aud recoding. So can anyone explain to me why Orange County is such a sh*thole? I mean I have never seen such ignorant, selfish, despicable people anywhere, even in Northern Virginia and that says a lot.

If you like reading stories about a particular show, then read on. If you want a specific review of this show, best to wait for one from someone that actually made it inside.

Hopefully, everyone has a day in their lives that acts as a milestone, a day from which you recall your life as either being before or after this day/event. This Irvine was my lifes milestone. This was the first time the Dead played this venue and no one including the staff had any idea what was about to hit Irvine. At the time, Irvine was a quiet bedroom community nestled behind the protection of the conservative Orange Curtain of Orange County. The Heads gave them a nice and well-deserved wakeup call that day.

We arrived early so we had plenty of time to roam the parking lot. It was a beautiful spring day, clear and very comfortable. We ran into the Candyman about three hours before the show. The hits were fresh; you could still see the soggy paper oozing with the goods. I had three and that was all she wrote for me. It wasnt long before my friends and I started feeling the affects, but for some reason, I was feeling them earlier and stronger than my buddies. After that things became VERY hazy for the next 6 hours. It took me about 5 years of piecing things together to really figure out what happened.

I remember wandering around the parking lot laughing and talking to myself, hearing a cacophony of music, making sense out of some of it, and then just leaving my body for a while. Occasionally I stopped to curl up into a very tiny ball on the pavement, rolling around like that on and off for an hour or so. I felt like I was trying to squeeze through a tiny hole and that it was important to get through to the other side. I remember people looking, talking, laughing and feeling some concern about my condition. Since it wasnt in danger of hurting myself or anyone else, people pretty much left me alone. My bell was rungLOUDLY, and no one really wanted to disrupt that. I vaguely remember spending a few minutes in the back of a police car, and some kind soul talking to the cops, explaining to them that I was just having an out of body experience and I was of no threat to anyone. They finally let me go and I resumed my trip in and out of reality for some time. My friends had lost track of me some time earlier and went inside the show. I dont know what happened to my ticket, but I remember finally hearing live musicI was out in the parking lot and Deal was playing; they were just finishing up the first set. I apparently drifted in and out of reality for about 3 hours. I tried not to be bummed that I didnt make it inside and instead, I relished in the idea that everything that happened to me was a truly wonderful and remarkable experience. Life, the world, the entire universe made sense. It was as if I was shown the secret inter-workings of the universe and it was up to me not to forget these things. I spent the second set dancing on the grass outside, all smiles, just waiting for my friends to come back out so I could tell them about all of the wonders and mysteries I had witnessed. It was truly a life changing experience, one that even over 22 years later still has an effect on me. Thank you Grateful Dead for showing me the light, thank you fans for helping me along and thank you Archive for hosting tons of shows that help all of us to relive the glory days of our youth.

Oh yeah, the recording is pretty good too!

Edit:
Wow, that review was almost 8 years ago. Can't believe it's been 30 years since I had that one-time before/after experience. Words still cannot fully describe the knowledge and insights I gained in that single day in 1983. Still reeling from it and glad to be...

I said the exact same thing at the exact same point.

Jackstraw's story was so humorous, intended or not, that I had to print it so as to read it to my friends later!

Reading that while listening to the tunes definitely put me in a specific place.

Such good times...

No (lazy lightning 1953)
This was a couple of "speedy" shows. This is Jerry actually being a little competitive. Stills can be on occasion a bossy, overwhelming lead guitarist.
His presence spurred Jerry on.
Also stills and Garcia partied very hard.
The rythm is super fast. Fastest I've heard since 60's.
Both these shows are in my top 100.

Awesome show, very tinny recording.

this show is hot.they are all jammin throught out the whole show.i loved jerry's rips in china cat,he,s gone was hot.i,ll give a 5 star for audio and song selection.great recording!!!!

It seems for me that the tape is going too fast, though the quality is amazingly good.

Correction: Sounds strange, but today everything is OK. What A Miracle!

only checked out cassidy.usually with cassidy or let it grow--both have difficult changes--you can tell if the show is full of clams. band sounds good. nice recording. since the board downloads were cut off we all have been cruising for good audiences. i've been pretty successful focusing on smallish general admission venues from 81-85. of course, FOB is always a good sign. the madison square spring 81 is the exception to the small venue theory--great audience recording/powerful performance. hope this helps others searching for the secret and listening for the sound.

"Occasionally I stopped to curl up into a very tiny ball on the pavement, rolling around like that on and off for an hour or so."--------LMFAO

Decent show/recording - 3 stars

Decent sounding audience... I am going to download...